Thursday, September 21, 2006

Fat Pipe is reporting on XO's press release: "In the first areas where the telecommunications carrier plans to use the technology through a partnership with Nextlink, its sister company, XO has implemented fixed broadband wireless networks in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, San Diego, Tampa and Washington, D.C. .... XO said it would use the technology as a “last mile access method” to provide businesses dedicated Internet access and Ethernet solutions at speeds of 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps. The technology also allows XO to replace leased circuits with fixed wireless links." As far as I can tell, NextLink has one sales guy, Steve Reid. The NextLink team seems unsure of the exact location of the towers / AP's. The LMDS spectrum being used is licensed by XO in 73 Metros in the 28-31 GHz range. XO proclaims: "Expands XO Network Reach to Any Line of Sight Location within Five Miles." The target market, according to John Grady, senior product manager at XO: cellular providers and enterprise customers. "It's been seven years since XO purchased the LMDS spectrum for approximately $900 million, but it's taken until 2006 to jump into the market with both feet, Grady explained. .... In 2004, XO was conducting LMDS trials in San Diego and Orange County, Calif. Shortly thereafter, XO's equipment supplier, Ensemble, shut its doors. XO's existing networks in Southern California, South Florida and Dallas still use the Ensemble equipment."
XO's competitor in the space is First Avenue Networks. Om has some thoughts on that.